Recently I was contacted by the owner of a new establishment in Lake Worth, Florida about a coal oven pizza place they opened. As many of you might know, I am a big fan of the owners of Grande Pizza in Boca Raton and Esposito's Pizza in Davie. Their Detroit Style Pizza is fantastic. So when I heard that they ventured into the coal oven game, I knew it would be well worth the visit, and my oh my am I glad I went.

Located on the South East corner of Lantana Road and Jog road is this new delight of a pizza place called Esposito's Coal Fire Pizza. This is the type of pizza you will drive miles to taste, and the next day you could very well crave it again. If dining indoors isn't your thing, they have about 75 seats outside on a covered patio as well, which will be fantastic for the winter months.

We wandered in towards the end of the night, so the place was only relatively still busy, but based upon the people leaving this pizza gem, I could tell it must have been a pretty busy night before we got there. You cannot help but smell the delicious flavoring in their pizza, as the ovens are wide open for all diners to view. I zig zagged my way towards one of the owners to say hello, and I was quite impressed that he was here making the pizza himself to insure that all pies were up to his standards. He explained to me a bit about the quality ingredients Esposito's Coal Fire Pizza in Lake Worth uses, including Grande Cheese, and I really thought I was going to sit down and faint when I saw the prices they must be charging.

When I gazed at the menu I thought it was an error, since a Large Pie at Esposito's Coal Fire Pizza is only $14.00. Many competing places like Anthony's and the rest of the places that copied them are more expensive than this and usually don't taste remotely as good as Esposito's regular pizza, without the coal. I am not sure how Esposito's Coal Fire Pizza manages to use such fine ingredients, and expensive ovens, and top quality coal and stil manage to be cheaper, but somehow they did. Now let's hope the plain traditional pizza I ordered came out as good as some of the ones that passed by me.

We ordered some salads and meatballs, as well as some Mozzarella Sticks. Everything was great but the Mozz Sticks were exceptional. In about 5 minutes my pie came out and they placed it on the table. The other couple we ate with thought the sauce was actually pepperoni's, but they just apply the sauce in a different way than many other places.

What bothers me about many coal fire pizza places is that they flash cook the pizza and char the crust, but the center never really cooks as well as the edges. This is mainly due to some new pizza maker who was hired based on wages instead of quality. I feared that this pizza would also sag and fall apart in the center since it didn't look that cooked. I was quite surprised with how well it held up. One of the only places down in the South Florida area who seems to understand how to use coal is Tucci's Pizza in Boca Raton (he uses coal and wood), and this pizza was comparable.

The crust tasted delicious and had this fruity olive oil aroma to it with each bite. The sauce was smoothed out and without any peel or chunks. It was a bit on the sweeter side (which is different than their other pizza places) and when placed on top of the Fresh Sliced Grande Cheese, it just melted in my mouth. I was really impressed with this pizza, and would recommend it to anyone.

I should point out that the owners happen to know I run WorstPizza.com and might have made their pie purposely perfect, but I have sent in others who they are not familiar with and they have shared equally raving reviews. If you want a nice change of pace, and are tired of all these fake coal oven places claiming to be VPN certified etc etc, when they actually aren't.....Esposito's Coal Fire Pizza in Lake Worth is for you. Plus they have a full bar, so you can enjoy your pizza with whatever drink you fancy.

They also sent over another pie they wanted me to try which was Arugala and Goat cheese, but I wasn't so adventurous. The couple we ate with adored it though so I guess we should recommend that one too.

To the owners of Esposito's I would love to see this concept in many of your other locations, or hopefully in many new ones you might look at.

Esposito's Coal Fire Pizza in Lake Worth gets 7 out of 8 slices.